Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano was taken by force at the age of eleven from his West African village of Benin. He was then put on a ship to travel through the rough "Middle Passage" of the Atlantic Ocean to become a slave in the West Indies. In the West Indies (Barbados) he was put up for sale to work in the sugar plantations. Then in 1766, he was sold to a Virginian farmer to be a slave there. He was a slave in North America for ten years, and then he was allowed to buy his freedom. He left North American and went to Great Britain. In Great Britain he worked as a barber and became an abolish nest. He spoke out against slavery and in 1789 wrote a book about his life called "The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", written by himself. This was thought to be the first book written by a former slave. In 1745, Equiano was born in Benin, which in now Virginia, he was a member of the farming village of Iseeke, they were in the IBO tribe. Equiano wrote in his autobiography that he was brought up to be a farmer and a great warrior. He was the youngest child and his mother would dress him up to look like a great warrior
He was put below deck for the journey, he said it was a smell down there he had never sensed before in his life. He was bound and gagged and given no food for days. He tells that he was tossed onto the ship to make sure he was a durable slave. He soon arrived on the coast of Africa where he was beginning his horrible journey to Barbados through the difficult Middle Passage of the Atlantic Ocean. In his book, Olaudah describes his voyage on the Atlantic Ocean. Even with all these horrible things that happened to him, he was still able to help other slaves and to end slavery for good. He thought the white men would eat him but the other slaves on the ship said they would not. Before the people of his tribe were kidnapped for slavery, he described a simple life of farm labor and playing with the other tribe kids. He was then sold to a Quaker merchant Robert King, who put him to work on the island of Montserrat. Equiano tells that his time in England was pleasant and safe. It was in England where he fought against slavery and wrote his autobiography in 1789. He did not work there long but the images of the slaves there scared him. Once down there, he refused to eat and was whipped severely for this. They were also beaten and tortured for minor mistakes such as letting a pot boil over.
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Acceptance Essays
